Do you remember the pandemic? Well, of course, how could we forget. It was a time when we truly believed that we were going to come out better. Even old-fashioned companies like Rumagosa SL (fictional name, mind you) had realized that workers didn’t need to spend over an hour commuting to an office for a job they could perfectly do, better and more comfortably, from home. Time passed, remote work remained, and at some point, Rumagosa SL decided that everyone should return to the office with flimsy excuses. Now replace “Rumagosa” with “Rockstar”… because that’s exactly what just happened.
Stars, yes. Rock, not so much
There is not much left to finish ‘GTA 6’, after years and years of development, and at Rockstar they have decided to celebrate it by forcing all workers to return to the office starting in April. The reasons they have given, of course, are far-fetched: productivity and security. The first one is, to say the least, questionable. The second one has to be recognized as making sense: it hasn’t been long since that massive leak by a hacker who exposed the game on the Internet and reportedly cost the company 5 million dollars.
Furthermore, the trailer for ‘GTA 6’ was also leaked a day earlier than expected. Regarding productivity, in an email Rockstar has stated that they have found tangible benefits in people working in an office, especially during the final sprint. Without giving examples, for whatever reason. Obviously, and to the surprise of absolutely no one, the workers have reacted with icy coldness, probably thinking about traffic jams, buses, and how nice it is to be at home.
Just what you want at the end of your game development, angry employees with the company! As some comments on Twitter say, it is possible that the best developers, upon hearing the news, are already looking for another job, and they can turn this end of the road into a real journey through the desert. Don’t be surprised if in a few weeks we are talking about Rockstar backing down. It would be the right thing to do.
